Ordering iMac today!!! Parallels worthwhile?

Like the header says... I'm making the plunge today. I spoke to MacMall last night and part of the bundle they are talking about is the inclusion of Parallels (and an Epson printer too).

I'm a long time PC user and have lots of PC apps that I'll probably use until I can upgrade to apple versions (i.e. older Photoshop/Corel/etc.). As I understand it, Parallels allows you to run windows apps simultaneously rather than having to exit the apple OS and reboot into windows. So the question I have is whether this works well or is it buggy?

Experiences vary, but I find Parallels slow and unstable. I prefer VMWare Fusion.

drgrafix said:

Like the header says... I'm making the plunge today. I spoke to MacMall last night and part of the bundle they are talking about is the inclusion of Parallels (and an Epson printer too).

I'm a long time PC user and have lots of PC apps that I'll probably use until I can upgrade to apple versions (i.e. older Photoshop/Corel/etc.). As I understand it, Parallels allows you to run windows apps simultaneously rather than having to exit the apple OS and reboot into windows. So the question I have is whether this works well or is it buggy?

Click to expand...

In my experience.....
Parallels is ok as long as you give it at least 756mb(with XP) or 1gb(Vista) - I have 2gb ram total. Anything less and it was slow and clunky.

It's ok for occasional stuff, office etc. But if you're firing up Photoshop or the Corel suite you'll find BootCamp-ing into full-blown windows much less frustrating.

I've only tried the trial of VMWare Fusion but it was much the same give or take.

Parallels will use the BootCamp partition as it's 'VM' if it finds one so you can have both.

If they're throwing it in for free or less than retail it's worth having.

All my experiences are based on my 2.16ghz core2duo 2gb Macbook. If you're getting something with more power and ram parallels may be a more attractive solution.

mrplow

knightlie said:

Experiences vary, but I find Parallels slow and unstable. I prefer VMWare Fusion.

Click to expand...

Does the inclusion of VMWare Fusion slow down Mac OS X? As I understand it, it essentially introduces a Hypervisor between the OS and the hardware. That has to slow things down some. Any subjective opinions?

Greetings.

IMHO Parallels is just fine on my iMac - an earlier model - 1.83 GHz 2GB SDRAM with Tiger. I use fairly basic software under Win 2000: Office; some Serif stuff and a genealogy program from TMG. Having a very understanding spouse, but one who has reached her limit regarding my tecchie expenditure, I use stuff that I've got rather than buying Mac 'equivalents'. As I am getting on in years, learning new programs is one challenge too many. I remain contented. It may be clunky with intensive, demanding software, and other options may prove more satisfactory. In summary, it depends on your particular needs..... Cheers Mitcherooney

I'm going with a iMac 24", 500GB HDD, 2.8GHz CPU, and 2GB, but I will upgrade the RAM with at least one 2GB stick. So it sounds like you have to allocate some resources to Parallels or VM Ware Fusion. With BootCamp you have to exit, power down and reboot? Is that stressful for the HDD long-term, not to mention all the other electronics?

And yes... they were giving me a rebate coupon so it virtually was almost free. I got a detailed quote from them this morning, and since I was looking to buy an open box item to allow me to get the above machine for the price of a 2.4/320GB setup the price sounded great. But the clinker was that all sales are final, no returns, and the warranty is 90 days or the balance of the original warranty when the machine was bought/returned.

Apple online has a somewhat similar deal, but they will allow returns, give you the full 1 year warranty, they include all CDs/Documentation, and they give you a $100 coupon towards a Epson printer. A little more expensive, but I like the idea of being able to bring it to my local apple store if something is wrong with it.

i'm very happy with parallels (trial version which is only 14 days). will order for permanent use. upgraded to 4g ram and use parallels setting recommendations. have a macbook pro. first time mac user.

i'm not a fan of open box purchases (pc) - did it many many years ago and although i could exchange it; made 3 exchanges and it still never worked right. i'd personally go the apple route. if i had to go one way or the other.

Done deal. Went with Apple refurbished which many forum members here have highly recommended. My iMac should be here around the middle of next week. Once I get it up and running, I'll do the trial software evaluation.

Is there a lot of bloatware in the trial stuff? What I mean is will I be installing stuff that I don't really need and then I have residual garbage on the system when I don't go further than the 14 day trials. They should actually give you 30 days to try this stuff out because I work all day and have to figure on really studying what benefits and shortcomings are associated with each trial package at night... and I still have to live too .

Is there an online/comprehensive list and overview of what's coming in the way of software trials with perhaps some opinions?

well, unless your old PC is, like, broken, why dont you just keep both and be really special : D

i can only speak for the parallels trial. it did download with anti-virus, etc. software which from reviews on net, is considered one of the best. it seems the trial download is their premium offering.

although the parallels trial was only 14 days, they did contact me before expiration, and due to our lack of time to get a real feel for the product, they extended me another trial key.

I have been using Parallels (full version) on my MacBook Air.

It's awesome, I have Fusion installed, but have been a bit disappointed (and this is coming from a VMWare Partner).

You can read my other thread where I go in more detail (IT Consultant .....) is the title.

mac57 said:

Does the inclusion of VMWare Fusion slow down Mac OS X? As I understand it, it essentially introduces a Hypervisor between the OS and the hardware. That has to slow things down some. Any subjective opinions?

Click to expand...

I've had a Windows 2000 VM running in VMWare for a week, it sat in the background and I didn't even realise I'd left it open; that was while I was running iTunes, PathFinder, MAMP, Smultron, FireFox, Opera, Camino, Transmit and even Google Earth simultaneously with no slowdown. So no, whatever VMWare is doing, it's not having any detrimental effects.

Is a specific version of Win XP required to work with Parallels? For those that want to run Win XP Home on Bootcamp, it calls for the version with Service Pack 2... just wondering if that's the case with Parallels as well.

thanks in advance!

I installed both demos and I liked VMWare Fusion better. I also noticed (and I think you can search on here and Google for it) that Parallels would not completely uninstall when I was done with the trial. It left components/settings/things in the system that it didn't remove automatically when I uninstalled it, and that upsetting me.

Actually, I haven't yet installed any windows, parallels, or vm-ware... I'm so busy learning how to do things in this gui I've been way too preoccupied. But with regard to your question, XP with SP2 is fairly rock-solid and stable. I would not install XP unless it was a version that had SP2 embedded or you got a very old one and downloaded SP2. Tons of patches and fixes for security and other things.

SupraTuRD said:

Is a specific version of Win XP required to work with Parallels? For those that want to run Win XP Home on Bootcamp, it calls for the version with Service Pack 2... just wondering if that's the case with Parallels as well.

thanks in advance!

Click to expand...

I was told that Adobe will swap you're license from pc to mac and send you a disc with the correct software for mac.
I don't know if other companies do this as well.
Would probably be a better option to have the mac version than to run it in windows though.

I use Parallels on my Macbook 2.2ghz with 4gb ram and 200gb Hitachi 7200RPM hard drive. XP is installed as my VM and I use it primarily for running Office 2007 and Dreamweaver. I've never had a problem with it crashing and found the apps start faster than on my spec-equivalent Dell XPS laptop.

I've never tried Fusion but from all the research I did and the fact that Parallels was out for Mac before VMWare, I opted for Parallels.